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We know that mistakes happen and things occasionally get lost in shipping, especially when you’re talking about the world’s largest retailer during the year’s busiest shopping season. But if a retailer admits to misplacing your order, it shouldn’t try to cash in on its own screw-up by charging you more than you had already paid.

And yet this is exactly what happened to a Walmart customer in Texas, who ordered a Peg Perego John Deere Gator XUV for her 3-year-old during Walmart.com’s Black Friday sale.

She tells KHOU-TV that the purchase was supposed to be delivered to her local store where she could pick it up, but was somehow delivered to a Walmart distribution center.

She was told there weren’t enough trucks to get the gift delivered to the proper delivery and that customers are not allowed to pick up items at the distribution center.

“The sales rep stated my order would not arrive by Christmas,” explains the mom, who says the rep also told her that she could get a refund and re-order the pricey gift, but she couldn’t get the Black Friday deal.

While the mom could get no love from Walmart, the retailer responded quickly once KHOU called the store out for trying to take advantage of their mistake.

Within a few hours, Walmart was apologizing and scheduling a delivery of the kiddie cart — and a $50 gift card — to the mom.

“We’re gonna get down to exactly what did happen,” a Walmart rep tells KHOU.

We have a hunch what happened. Walmart screwed up and the sales rep that the mom talked to had no idea how to resolve the issue and didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to make a customer whole again.

Shoppers should not need to resort to getting the media involved just to avoid getting screwed out of their holiday shopping money.

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